Information Literacy Implementation Advisory Committee (ILIAC): Charge

This charge to an Information Literacy Implementation Advisory Committee serves as a follow up to the Rutgers Libraries expressed desire to

• develop a greater role for library faculty responsiveness to student needs for information literacy,
• the 2008 Middle States' recommendations on information literacy,
• the subsequent fact-finding report of the Information Literacy Task Force released to the Rutgers University Libraries faculty October 1, 2010.

It is readily acknowledged that for any University-wide information literacy program to be implemented and to succeed it will ultimately require recognition of this need at the highest levels within the University and for a partnership with the teaching faculty. To this end, the Information Literacy Implementation Advisory Committee (ILIAC) is intended to act upon some of the recommendations from its predecessor Information Literacy Task Force Report and to gather further information to advise the University Librarian, the Associate University Librarian-Research and Instructional Services, and others on the library faculty.

The ILIAC is charged with the following responsibilities:

• Determine from the start a common definition of information literacy to be used throughout the report
• Identify existing practices, commonalities, and differences on our various campuses and within different disciplines among the library faculty that are currently providing instruction
• Select a core of approximately 5-8 teaching faculty whose classes have information literacy as a learning goal and who are receiving basic instruction from a library faculty member and secure each one's interest and willingness to explore with you possible approaches to information literacy in the Rutgers environment*
• Interview each faculty member either individually or in focus group settings (or through a combination) on potential approaches the librarians can take to offering a more broadly based information literacy program
• Codify favorable and unfavorable comments regarding our existing efforts to instruct students
• Recommend steps that the University Librarian, AUL-RIS, and others can take to develop a fuller information literacy program within the University
• Take into consideration the increasing number of distance education students at the University and how their needs can be addressed
• Determine what statistics are essential to be gathered to meet reporting needs of ARL, ACRL, and local interests, consulting, as needed, with the AUL for Planning and Assessment.

The Advisory Committee will report its findings initially to the AUL-RIS and to the User Services Council. An update on Committee progress should be delivered to the User Services Council at its February 2011 meeting, with preliminary report requested by April 1, 2011. A final report should be available by May 2, 2011 and made available initially to the University Librarian, the AUL-RIS, and the User Services Council for discussion and further action.

Mary Fetzer
Interim AUL-RIS
21 October 2010

*Will require IRB review.